1998 Ohio University Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights’ Festival
Guest Mentors
Ed Herendeen founded the Contemporary American Theater Festival in 1991. Through his leadership the Contemporary Theater Festival has produced fourteen world premieres, commissioned seven new plays, expanded its audience from two hundred to over eleven thousand, and has gained the reputation as one of America’s most important producers of new work. His directing credits include the following world premieres: The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by John Olive, The Occupation by Harry Newman, Miss Golden Dreams, A Play Circle by Joyce Carol Oates, Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher, Carry the Tiger to the Mountain by Cherylene Lee, Octopus by Jon Klein, Psyche Was Here by Lynn Martin, What are Tuesdays Like? by Victor Bumbalo and Still Waters by Lynn Martin. Other CATF directing credits include The Late Henry Moss by Sam Shepard, Thief River by Lee Blessing, Something in the Air, Gun-Shy, and Below the Belt by Richard Dresser, The Wather Children by Wendy MacLeod, BAFO by Tom Strelich, Lighting up the Two Year Old by Benjie Aerenson, Beti the Yeti by Jon Klein, Shooting Simone Lynne Kaufmann, Alabama Rain by Heather McCuthchen, Black by Joyce Carol Oates, and The Swan by Elizabeth Egloff. In addtion to the CATF, Ed has worked in a variety of regional theaters including The Milwaukee Repertory, The Missouri Repertory, The Old Globe, The Lyceum Theater, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Ed has also served on the 2002 admissions committee at New Dramatists, NYC and as a panelist for the NEA.
Sherry Kramer Her plays have been produced extensively here and abroad and include David’s RedHaired Death, The Mad Master, Things That Break, What a Man Weighs, The Wall of Water, Ivanhoe, MO., The Law Makes Evening Fall, and a new one woman, one Barbie play, SOFA: Enchanted Evening. She is the recipient of NEA, NYFA, and McKnight Fellowships, the Weissberger Award, a New York Drama League Award, the L.A. Woman in Theater New Play Award, the Jane Chambers Award, and was the first national member of New Dramatists. She teaches playwriting at the Michener Center for Writers, UT Austin, and the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, where she was head of the workshop in 1996. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing.
SANDY SHINNER is the Producing Artistic Director at Shattered Globe Theater. Shinner, who served more than 25 years as Associate Artistic Director at Chicago’s Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater, has directed over 100 productions in her career at theaters including Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival and Steppenwolf’s First Look Rep, created and produced the nationally known IGNITION! Festival at Victory Gardens and was co-director of the award-winning Access Project.
Seabury Quinn, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Theater, received his B.A. from Harvard University, M.A. from Columbia University, and Ph.D. from Yale University. Before joining Ohio University faculty, he taught at the University of Denver at Vassar College and worked for the New York Public Library’s Theater Collection. He directed Ohio University’s 1987 production of The Trojan Woman and acted in the 1988 production of Trevor Giffith’s Comedians and the 1990 production of Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take it With You. Translator with Evert Spinchorn of The Chamber Plays of August Strindberg, he also participated with Howard Stein in the 1987 National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar “The American Playwright 1920-1980” at Columbia University. Quinn retired in 1996 and passed away in November of 2008.
Milan Stitt was born in Detroit and attended Cooley High School and the University of Michigan. Long associated with the Circle Repertory Company in New York City, which produced all of his plays including Back in the Race and The Runner Stumble with William Hurt. He wrote and directed “Labor Day” for company member Christopher Reeve. The Runner Stumbles was named Best Broadway Play of 1976 in the annual Best Plays book. It has been published in four American versions and translated into several languages. The film version with his screenplay was made by Stanley Kramer. Among his teleplays are The Gentleman Bandit, Kentucky Ride, and Long Shadows, which was nominated for an International Emmy for best film. As an educator, he was chairman of the Playwriting Program at the Yale School of Drama and also taught writing at Princeton, New York University, University of Michigan, and was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Worchester State University. He founded The New American Theater School at the Women’s Project and Productions. He was also the Head of the Dramatic Writing Program at Carnegie Mellon University where he was awarded the Raymond W. Smith Chair in Dramatic Writing. His articles on theater and travel have appeared in The New York Times and Horizon magazine. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, he received writing grants from both the New York and Michigan Councils for the Arts and from the National Endowment for the Arts. Stitt passed away in March of 2009 at the age of 68.
1998 Festival Line Up:
MFA Featured Production:
Disengaged
by Anita Gabrosek
Directed by Tim Aumiller
Saturday, May 16th 8:00PM
Synopsis: Rebecca and Jess have been together for twenty years. At thirty-two, it’s high time they both find Mr. Right.
Readings:
May 14th
3:00PM Killing El Cid by Dan Shea
8:00PM Charlotte by Anne Cofell
May 15th
10:00AM Seamless Cut by Anita Gabtosek
3:00PM The Burning by Marianne Hales
8:00PM Closer to Home by Thomas Frattare
May 16th
11:00AM get down by Luke Alberts
3:00PM Good Things Only by Ronnie Koenig
